Hi Neighbors! I've been working with a volunteer group of Columbia City neighbors for two years to develop this amazing new project. We need your support today to make the final push to make it a reality.

This is a new project in the Cheasty Greenspace, which is that forest growing over there on the Eastern slope of Beacon Hill overlooking our neighborhood. For 6 years now, the Friends of Cheasty Greenspace at Mountainview (of which I am a proud member) have been restoring the Southern 10 acres of this forest. In that time we have removed several tons of garbage, pulled out a gazillion pounds of English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry, transplanted and nurtured many hundreds of native plants, and built walking trails through this forest for the enjoyment of the whole community.

It’s lovely, and if you haven’t had a chance to explore this beautiful forest you should take advantage of one of these lovely spring days to check it out. The existing natives have rebounded with vigor and the sections we restored in the beginning are fast growing up to take over the space. We no longer find large garbage dumps or homeless encampments, and the woods now ring with birdsong and the laughter of children. (Really! It’s that nice!)

So that’s the Southern 10 acres, but now we’re making plans to push our work into the Northern 33 acre section. The Southern perimeter of this space that you see from Columbian Way/Alaska Street looks lovely, doesn’t it? We can’t take any credit for that; the City of Seattle and Green Seattle Partnership has contracted with Earthcorp for many years to restore this space and they’ve done a wonderful job. About a hundred yards into the forest is beautifully restored, and at that rate we’ll have a beautiful forest there by next century.

But I have a growing family now, and this forest is within walking distance of my house, so I am highly motivated to make this a safe, healthy, and welcoming forest a little sooner than that. Which is why I’m working with the Friends of Cheasty Greenspace at Mountainview to restore this forest now, and why we developed a plan to add mountain bike trails to our restoration and walking paths in the Northern section of the forest.

It’s a beautiful plan, and I wish I could tell you all about it here, but this is probably already too many words… To learn more, go to BeaconBikePark.com, or send queries to moc.liamg|krapekibnocaeB#moc.liamg|krapekibnocaeB and I’ll get back to you with all the beautiful details. There’s also a beaconbikepark facebook page with lots of conversation about the project.

In the meantime, like all projects using city resources, this one has attracted some opposition, reflecting both justifiable concerns and some perhaps well-meaning, but shor-sighted, knee-jerk reactionism. I can’t claim to define which is which, but I do feel strongly that this is an amazing opportunity for our neighborhood and I don’t want this small group of vocal opposition to take this opportunity away from those of us that are so busy getting by we can’t (or don’t) shout so loud.

Please take a few minutes tonight to read more about this project and contact our elected officials to share your thoughts on this valuable new park development in our neighborhood. The entire thing is conceived, developed, and (will be) built with volunteer labor driven by local citizens here in Columbia City. It will improve native habitat, local access to the forest, neighborhood connectivity, and nearby recreational opportunities while reducing invasive species like rats and ivy, and unsafe and illegal activities on the hillside over our homes.

I don’t want to be all dramatic, but now’s the time. Those who prefer the status quo are shouting from the rooftops this week, and if the rest of us don’t make our voices heard, we’re in danger of losing the whole thing.

Seattle City Council Members on the Parks Board
Council Member Jean Godden at vog.elttaes|neddog.naej#vog.elttaes|neddog.naej
Council Member Tom Rasmussen vog.elttaes|nessumsar.mot#vog.elttaes|nessumsar.mot
Council Member Sally Bagshaw at vog.elttaes|wahsgab.yllas#vog.elttaes|wahsgab.yllas

I recently told you a little bit about the project on which we're about to embark in the Cheasty Greenspace along the Western side of Columbia City and many of you responded by contacting our government officials and letting them know how much our community is looking forward to this. It made a great difference! The City Council committee in charge of parks met yesterday to learn more about the project and they are continuing to support this dynamic vision for our local woods.

Now is a great time for you and your family to get involved, on the ground, because we're going to be building this project with our own two hands. (Well, actually, it's going to take hundreds of hands, thousands of "hand-hours" as a matter of fact!)

Our first work parties on the North side, where the new bike trails will go, will be later this month. Saturday, April 12th, will be kicked off by Bikeworks, and Saturday, April 19th will be the big Earth Gay event, Out For Sustainability. These will be getting down and dirty with the blackberry and ivy as we tackle a whole new section of the forest that has seen little or no love since this hillside was first logged almost a century ago.

But this coming Saturday, April 5th, will be wonderful opportunity to come out and "get your feet wet" so to speak. (Although working in the woods in spring in Seattle, it's not unlikely that your feet will actually become wet.) We will be doing restoration work and trail building near the new pedestrian trailhead at the far South end of the Southern section. It's a great way to appreciate the work that's already been done, and contribute to finishing off this section of the project.

It's terribly satisfying work, and is suitable for people of varying abilities. We always have a lot of families and ages range from infants in arms to retired elders. We would love to have you, too.

We gather at 10am at a nearby home, at 2809 S. Alaska Place. (This is that tail end of Alaska that drifts up over the big lightrail Shovel.) We wrap up work at noon.